Changing Tactics
by BatPhace
Summary: Added an alternate ending. SLASH Drizzt changes his tactics in his ongoing battle with Artemis Entreri. Review please! I live on them.
1. Chapter 1

Again, not my usual spot. I'm expanding ;o)

That said, this is also my first ever completed SLASH fic, got that? S.L.A.S.H. No likie? NO READIE! Seriously, it's a little fluffy maybe, and maybe a little ooc. So here it is.

Disclaimer: I don't own, don't sue me.

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Artemis Entreri came conscious, but did not immediately open his eyes. The first thing the assassin noted was that he was not bound. Without moving, he felt for his weapons and realized his sword was gone, but he still had the jeweled dagger at his hip. Silently he took stock of his surroundings, and wracked his brain through the pain in his head to remember how he'd gotten there. Once healed of his wounds from their last battle in Calimport, the assassin had followed the trail of Drizzt Do'Urden to the north, hearing along the way about a strange band of friends that included an honorable drow elf. That trail landed him in the city of Silverymoon, where some digging uncovered information about the drow's frequent visits to the city, coming from the newly re-established Mithral Hall, now ruled by one Bruenor Battlehammer, Eighth King of said hall. Entreri had caught Drizzt off guard on his way to the city, ambushing him from a higher point on the mountain trail the elf was passing along where the sun shown the brightest. They had fought fiercely, the drow recovering quickly from the surprise of the assassin's sudden appearance and parrying every offense with those damned scimitars of his. Something had happened though, Entreri could not remember exactly what, but he'd lost his footing somehow and hit his head on a boulder.

Now, as Entreri woke, he felt a cloak folded beneath his head and another beneath his body. He felt the nauseating pain from hitting his head, but also the bandage that wrapped it. He felt the warming glow of a fire close to his right. Entreri smelled rain and heard the fall of it somewhere far beyond his feet, and the echo of it far above his head; a cave then. Most interestingly, Entreri also heard quiet, steady breathing to his right, opposite the fire; even odds it was the drow, waiting for Entreri to wake so that he could gloat. But then, Entreri pondered, why the bandages? Why not leave him on the trail in the mountains for orcs or giants or trolls to find? The assassin was genuinely curious. Find out, _and_ _then_ kill him, Entreri thought as he started to sit up.

"Take your time, assassin, or surely you'll swoon back into unconsciousness," the drow's voice was a balance of disinterest and amusement. Irritated, Entreri sat up fully, ripping off the bandages, ignoring the intense pang of queasiness in his gut and light feeling of his head. It passed soon enough. Looking across the fire, Drizzt Do'Urden sat relaxed, knees drawn up with his arms lazily draped around them. He absently poked at the fire with a long stick, but his lavender eyes were set upon Entreri. Entreri noted that the dark elf was not wearing his customary forest green cloak. The one folded under Entreri's head had been green, he thought.

"Why bother to shelter me, drow?" the assassin sneered, "Why not leave me for dead and make your escape?"

Drizzt sighed, a weary sound, but did not release the assassin from his lavender stare. "There is obviously no escaping you, Artemis Entreri. Not while you hold the obsession you seem to have with killing me. So I've changed my battle tactics." The drow smirked mischievously, further infuriating the assassin. In one deft move, Entreri grabbed for his jeweled dagger and lunged at the elf across the fire. As if expecting the move, Drizzt rolled back with the assassin's momentum, but did not move to grab his own weapons, the dreaded twin scimitars, which lay off to the side. In fact, he made hardly a move at all, which again caught the assassin's curiosity, and so Entreri held his dagger to the drow's throat without quite drawing blood. One wrong word though, Entreri thought ominously. He had landed atop the elf, pinning the drow ranger back against the cave wall. The drow's breathing remained even though, steady, and no battle fire lit in his eyes. The lavender orbs held only cool confidence. Drizzt did not fear for his life. A trick? Some ambush Entreri did not realize? Drizzt smiled slightly at the confusion in the assassin's eyes.

"No one has ever _not _been afraid of you, have they? Everyone knows Artemis Entreri, nefarious assassin of Pasha Pook. You strike terror at the casual mention of your infamous name." The drow's voice became softer as he continued, lower, with a ring to it that was unfamiliar to the assassin, "But I would bet all the riches in Calimport that no one has ever shown you compassion, or empathy, or tenderness." Drizzt raised a hand, and Entreri pressed a little harder with the dagger, a threat, but the elf seemed unconcerned and continued his course, laying his fingertips gently to the side of the assassin's face, molding his palm to the curve of the human's jaw.

A touch. A simple touch. Entreri expected to feel his usual scorn and derision for such an act. But he didn't. A single strange shiver ran across Entreri's spine, which served only to confuse him more. He must have hit his head harder than he'd originally thought. He looked up into lavender eyes, searching for a ruse, or signs of deceit, but found only sincerity. Compassion? Tenderness? These were weaknesses as far as Entreri had ever been concerned. How dare this drow -a _drow!_- try to distract him so with talk of empathy and tenderness. Entreri's irritation returned and he pressed hard at Drizzt's throat with the blade of the dagger, barely biting into the dark skin there. Still, the elf was unflinching.

Drizzt chuckled, but when he spoke there was no humor in his voice. "Do it, assassin. Cut my throat. Let my life's blood drain from me, let the light leave my eyes forever. The world would not weep for one less drow in it, however different that drow may have been. You would have accomplished your compulsion and ended Drizzt Do'Urden. But you would lose. You would leave here with the knowledge that I was right all along. About the truth within the true warrior. About my own life. About the wicked, empty lie that is yours. In fact, you already know the truth, don't you?" The assassin tensed to strike. To silence this bane of his existence forever. All he had to do was pull the dagger to one side, for the blade was already pressed into the ebony flesh, even bringing a tiny trickle of blood. Just pull the dagger...

"Entreri," the drow spoke the assassin's name gently, pronouncing every syllable, and Entreri looked up frantically only to lose himself within infinite lavender pools. Drizzt's voice lowered again, and he moved his mouth alongside the assassin's ear, leaning over and into the dagger, so close Entreri could feel the breath of the whispered words, "You won't. Not that you can't, for surely this would be the moment, I'll admit that. You won't. A part of you, a small part perhaps, but a part of you wants to hear my words and know their truth," he paused, and then, "Let me show you."

Entreri was suddenly, intimately aware of the drow beneath him. The warmth the body emanated. The rise and fall of the breathing, the rumble of the voice in the chest. Intoxicating. Entreri could feel the dark elf entwining with him, his own will retreating. He could feel his fingers opening of their own accord as he dropped the dagger. Likewise, Entreri did not recall the conscious decision to lean into the drow's touch, or press closer to his body, just for the contact. Drizzt knew, leaned his head back slightly searching dark eyes with lavender ones, looking upon Entreri's trepidation and facing it down. Drizzt traced his soft lips over the assassin's rough cheek, ghosting them across Entreri's lips. Entreri drew in a sharp breath, closed his eyes, but did not move. Drizzt gently, softly, closed his mouth over Entreri's parted lips. Entreri melted against the elf involuntarily, so absorbed by the seductive pull of Drizzt Do'Urden.

My gods! Entreri thought, What is this spell? One hand still on his cheek, Drizzt moved the other hand to the assassin's shoulder, then hair, as his tongue pushed through Entreri's lips, caressing just inside the bottom lip with his slender tongue, then dancing along the roof of the assassin's mouth. Then Drizzt started to rise, finding it remarkably easy to coax the assassin up with him. He led the human back in the cave where Drizzt had a straw pallet set up for when he was caught in storms on his frequent journeys. The elf's nimble fingers made short work of Entreri's clothes, and soon Drizzt's joined the assassin's, cast aside. Drizzt demanded trust in this and the irony was not lost on the assassin; a drow that demanded trust, for the sake of trust, and not some ulterior motive. Entreri was surprised at how easily he offered that trust, though a small voice in the back of his mind objected. None of that mattered now, though. Entreri could not feel enough of the dark elf. Could not taste enough. Sword roughened hands roamed everywhere. Over every honed muscle playing beneath the dark skin. And likewise, Drizzt's delicate fingers, lips, tongue, elicited sensations in the assassin that Entreri hadn't even known he hadn't ever felt. One deft movement and the drow was lying behind the assassin. Trust, trust, Entreri reminded himself, though as soon as Drizzt pulled his lips down Entreri's spine and back up to his neck, the thought was lost in a swell of pleasure that left the human tingling in its wake. Drizzt's fingers traced over Entreri's planes and contours, and found the assassin's member standing strong and hard. Another violently delicious shiver and a groan pulled from Entreri, as the dark elf's fingers stroked him. Drizzt kissed the assassin's neck and whispered in his ear, "This is tenderness, assassin. It is a powerful weapon to wield."

A thought came to Entreri then, with the dark elf's heated body pressed so close to his back; the ultimate intimacy with his ultimate enemy. "Drow... Ah, Drizzt..." The words ground out and the assassin hardly recognized his own voice, so thick was it.

"I know," was the dark elf's only reply. Drizzt did something then, moving away for only a moment, and then Entreri felt the elf slowly, smoothly pushing inside him. The pain was more exquisite, more delicious, than any battle wound Entreri had ever received. Drizzt felt the assassin tense and adjusted accordingly, beginning an excruciatingly slow rhythm. Entreri's pain quickly turned to a terrible pleasure. It burned though the assassin like wildfire and had him groaning the dark elf's name, bowing back against the ranger's body. Wave after wave of pleasure rocked the assassin with each thrust of slender hips and pump of nimble fingers. Entreri could feel a great pressure building in him, growing by the moment. His own release building fast, Drizzt sped the pace. Moans and growls and whimpers and cries echoed around the cave, and Entreri had lost track of whose voice was whose. Ecstasy rolled over Entreri in waves, threatening to drag him under with the power of them. Finally, blessedly, Entreri found release, finishing so hard he lost track of the world for a moment. Drizzt barreled into his own release, the throbbing heat of it pushing Entreri only higher. He trembled as he came down. The assassin was shaken to his core, the core of everything he knew. The core of who he was. Sensing his sudden shift, Drizzt pulled Entreri back against him, wrapping arms around him and murmuring soothing words into Entreri's ear.

The next time Entreri opened his eyes, sunlight poured in from the cave entrance. The fire was burned out. He was still naked, still pressed close to his most hated enemy. Slowly, almost hesitantly, Entreri disentangled himself from the dark elf and dressed. He found his dagger, and that gave him pause. He looked long between the dagger and the sleeping drow. Only a day before, Entreri had tried to kill him, had chased him for miles to accomplish only that. That thought and that thought alone had been with Entreri every waking moment. Now though, the thought of killing Drizzt Do'Urden almost made him... sick? And sad. Something had shifted in the assassin, something crucial that he wasn't even sure he understood yet. Entreri shook his head and sheathed his dagger, turning to leave. At the entrance of the cave he looked back once, and could swear he saw smiling lavender eyes glowing out from the back of the cave.

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Don't forget to reveiw! PLEASE PLEASE!


	2. Alternate Ending

Just an alternate ending I thought up. Drizzt fangirls are going to HATE ME! :o) I hate me a little too for thinking it, but...

Again, I don't own em.

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The next time Entreri opened his eyes, sunlight poured in from the cave entrance. The fire was burned out. He was still naked, still pressed close to his most hated enemy.

Slowly, almost hesitantly, Entreri disentangled himself from the dark elf and dressed. He found his dagger, and that gave him pause. He looked long between the dagger and the sleeping drow. It would be sweet, he knew, to bury his dagger into the dark elf's chest and draw out his life force little by little with the vampiric dagger, but would simply cutting his throat perhaps be more prudent? Entreri smiled. He had made the drow believe there had been some change within his heart, made his victim feel comfortable and complacent. Exposed in his weakness. He had gotten some much needed physical satisfaction as well, an added plus, Entreri thought with a cold sneer. Now it was time for Drizzt Do'Urden to die.

The assassin struck quickly, taking advantage of the vulnerability of the other male as he slept; so stupid. Entreri attacked, launching himself to crouch over Drizzt's chest, backhanding him hard with the pommel of the dagger and simultaneously pinning the drow's arms to his sides with his thighs and grabbing the drow's soft white locks in his iron fist. Stunned lavender orbs flew open wide as realization set in, and before Drizzt could even begin to react, Artemis Entreri sliced a thin line across the drow's bared, black throat. Blood arced out from the artery spattering the wall and the assassin's face, and a profound sorrow filled the dark elf's eyes at the cold stare Entreri offered as his last view in the world before his life left him. It hadn't taken as long as the assassin would have liked, but it was done.

Drizzt Do'Urden was dead.

Artemis Entreri was free.


End file.
